The Government has been urged to crack down on unregistered foreign cars that dodge £3million of road tax every year - a sum that could be ploughed back into maintaining highways.

Around 60,000 non-UK vehicles are registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency annually but an estimated 15,000 are not, according to motoring organisation the RAC.

As a result, around £3million in missed vehicle excise duty is not being collected. At the same time, the RAC warns drivers of these vehicles can dodge fines for speeding and using bus lanes as it’s difficult to track down the perpetrators, meaning even more lost revenue.

Foreign cars: The RAC says the Government is missing out on millions in tax from those not registering foreign motors

Pete Williams, head of external affairs at RAC, said: ‘Given the prevalence of technology such as automatic number plate recognition, it is beyond belief that in the 21st century two important Government agencies – namely the UK Border Force and DVLA – are not already sharing information in a system that allows us to keep track of the comings and goings of non-UK vehicles.

‘As things stand now, we don’t have a clue about the true number of foreign cars in the UK that should be paying VED or how many of them that require MOTs to make sure they are road legal and can be insured.

‘What’s more, drivers of unregistered foreign cars and vans are escaping speeding fines generated by safety cameras as there is no easy means of matching foreign number plates to their owners who may or may not live hundreds of miles away in another country.’

Under current regulations, visiting non-UK cars must be registered with the DVLA once they have been in the UK for six months.

At this point, they must pay a £55 first registration fee, ensure they have paid VED, obtain an MOT if the vehicle is over three years old and in some instances pay VAT.

However, despite the UK Border Force gathering details of every non-UK vehicle entering and leaving the country, this information is not currently used by the DVLA for licensing purposes, which means the Government is missing out on valuable tax revenue.

The RAC is now calling on the Government to urgently create a database of non-UK-registered cars as they enter and leave the UK.

It adds the DVLA has no idea when non-UK-registered vehicles have stayed in the country longer than six months.

This means many over three years old may not have a valid MOT and therefore contravene insurance rules, compromising the safety of all road users.

The motoring organsation says the figure could be much higher, especially considering that some 2.5million cars alone use the Eurotunnel every year, meaning the £3million figure could be undercooked.

Pete Williams says the dodge is likely to anger millions of honest British motorists who play by the rules and pay their way to use the roads.

He adds: ‘We are effectively relying on the good citizenship of individuals to register their foreign vehicles themselves once they have been here for six months, but there is little encouragement to do so – especially when you consider that driving a car with foreign plates can make it likely you will evade automatically-generated fines for offences like speeding or driving in a bus lane.

‘Other countries in Europe have got to grips with this. Norway, for instance, has a system for tracking foreign cars and billing them for using toll roads. In the interests of ensuring all vehicles on Britain’s roads are roadworthy, fully taxed and insured, it really is high time the UK followed suit. We urge the Government to rectify this as a matter of priority.

‘We understand that DVLA, the UK Border Force and the police are looking at how data can be used to identify foreign-registered vehicles that have been in the UK for longer than six months, so we urge the Government to make finding an effective solution a high priority.’

A Department for Transport spokesman, said: ‘We are aware of the issue of foreign vehicles failing to register with the DVLA if they have been in the UK for longer than six months.

‘Discussions are currently on-going across government to identify ways of improving the flow of information between agencies in order to tackle this problem and we hope to announce firm plans shortly.’